Maison Ikkoku: The Musical!

This has absolutely nothing to do with the theme of this blog, but after such a long unscheduled hiatus I was looking for an excuse to throw something up – and what an excuse!

Yes Rumiko Takahashi’s classic manga/anime series is being ushered onto the stage by the enthusiastic fanboy, Joe Vecchio. I have been lucky enough to receive a copy of the script and what can I say? It’s touching and a lot of fun, with Japanese cultural insights sprinkled throughout. Vecchio does not try and condense a 96 episode TV series/15 volume manga series into an 82 page script. No, what he has done, though, is successfully capture the essence of the series and provide it with an alternative and structurally sound, postmodern artifice through which to reach a new audience – potentially. After all, he is not quite there yet.

Now imagine them all singing...

Vecchio has used Kickstarter to fund his project and still needs some help to reach his goal. If you are for the idea, why not show him some financial love over here. And if you are as curious as I am to see how this project turns out, you can follow it on facebook.

To the best of my knowledge, and other academics that have been commentating on the project including the writer himself, this is the first instance of an anime/manga being professionally adapted for the stage. And I say good luck to Mr. Vecchio!

Of course, the advantage of using my blog to disseminate this information is the feedback I may receive. So. Questions:

Do you think a stage musical adaptation of anime/manga is a good idea?

Will it be a trend that catches on?

Will it draw an audience?

Will the quintessential anime humour of the series successfully translate to the stage?

And with no official rights to the work, and hence lacking the maternal protection of the original creators, are people concerned of it damaging the legacy of one of anime/manga’s most memorable and beloved series?

6 responses to “Maison Ikkoku: The Musical!”

Apologies if I don’t answer the questions directly. In recent times we have had numerous stage musical adaptations of games and anime in Japan including Persona 4, Phoenix Wright, Code Geass, Brave 10 and more.

At first I found it rather silly but I’ve come to think of it as a great idea because it allows fans a new avenue to explore their favourite works and it may draw a new audience to the original material.

I am a little dubious about how the humour will translate onto the stage, but the script is great, and anime is one of the mediums with the (un)healthiest fan culture, so I say “go for it!” I, too, am all in favour of using new avenues to explore a text.